Titan Mirror
by racle
Summary: Slade realizes that the reason he can't beat the Titans is because they're a team. So he mirrors them by creating a team of villains who can work together against the Titans.
1. Moment of Clarity

Chapter 1: Moment of Clarity

The Hierarchy of International Vengeance was at a low point. Several prominent villains were in custody. Although some new ones were in the pipeline, it would be at least a year before they were ready, and even then they lacked the experience of the captured villains.

Slade sat in a meeting room in his headquarters, pondering over his next move. He looked down the table at the few subordinates he still had. His mind drifted back to past battles with the Titans, almost all of them ending in defeat. Suddenly, he was struck by an inspiration. A lightbulb lit up over his head as he thought excitedly. Although no one could see his face behind the mask (and it was a robot anyway), the flash of his inspiration was evident to Slade's subordinates.

Slade was remembering the task he had given to Gizmo, Jinx, and Mammoth. They had succeeded, temporarily, in driving the Titans from their tower. The key was that they had not been sent as three individual villains...but rather as one team. They had been outnumbered, so they still failed in the end. But they had been closer to victory than the HIVE ever got since.

Slade had a plan to repeat the success. He needed more villains. That would mean waiting another year for the most recent recruits to finish training...no, that was too long. Slade was getting impatient for a victory, as it had been so long since his previous one. That left one option. He needed to rescue the HIVE members in custody. Then, he would lie low for a time, bringing the villains together as a team. When they could function as a cohesive unit they would be able to capture the city, and Slade would finally be rid of the Titans.

He thought of his remaining army...about 50 undamaged droids, three robots that looked like him and had his abilities, hundreds of non-functional damaged droids, and his apprentice Terra. These forces would have to be conserved, and expended only if absolutely necessary.

In addition to these fighting units, he had prepared a special robot that resembled Cinderblock in outside appearance. He planned to use this fake Cinderblock to create a distraction while he went to rescue one of his former subordinates. He was pondering over which villain to rescue, but suddenly—

An alarm went off, snapping Slade out of his deep thought. Slade's headquarters were equipped similarly to Robin's; the alarms gave notice of any trouble in the city. Slade glanced at the location highlighted on the map, and decided that it was worth pursuing.

"Cinderblock has escaped his prison," announced Slade, who was unnecessarily addressing the entire room. "We have to bring him to safety!" Slade was used to speaking to the whole chamber, although in this case there was only one live person in the audience.

Slade stood up and walked quickly out of the room. Terra followed. They couldn't run yet, despite the hurry they were in, because of the damaged robots strewn across the floor of the cavern which Slade hadn't bothered to remove. Once they cleared the entrance of the cavern, Terra silently called up a large, flat rock. Slade and Terra hopped onto the rock, which, surrounded by a yellow halo, took them to the desired location.

* * *

A large four-legged spider with a human face ran from a walled, fenced compound. A trail of wrecked police cars and mangled bodies followed it.

Gizmo looked down at the police forces blocking his path. He had destroyed the others with his missiles and machine cannon, but he found himself out of ammunition. A row of rifle barrels were pointed up at him. He smiled confidently and retracted his spider legs, instead sprouting grey wings from his backpack. Evading the rifle fire, he flew from the scene. He flew as fast as he could, desperate to obtain freedom, only to fly straight into a net. He fell down, his wings tangled in the netting, landing at the feet of a satisfied Robin.


	2. Mirror Four

Author's Note: This story follows the Cartoon Network show, not the comics. It diverges from the show shortly before the 2-part episode "Aftershock."

Chapter 2: Mirror Four

Gizmo struggled to get out of the net Robin had thrown over him. He used the sharp trailing edge of his left wing to cut through the net. Robin made no move to stop him, because just as he wriggled from the net he found himself staring into Cyborg's sonic cannon. Gizmo was resigned to recapture, but—

A wall of dirt shot through from under the pavement, throwing Robin and Cyborg high into the atmosphere. Slade rushed forward and dragged a surprised Gizmo away from the Titans, who were falling back to the surface. Cyborg landed roughly on his back, creating a dent in the pavement, but the more acrobatically-skilled Robin landed on both feet and charged in with his staff.

Slade saw Gizmo and Terra standing idly. "Take Gizmo back to headquarters—I'll distract the Titans!" ordered Slade. Both villains came back to reality, and Gizmo hopped a ride on the flat rock that had earlier delivered Slade to the area. Slade and Robin continued to duel with their staffs. Robin was slowly gaining the upper hand, forcing Slade to backpedal rapidly.

Terra and Gizmo stood on the rock, surrounded by a yellow halo. It was not long before greenish-yellow energy bolts whizzed all around them. A yellow bolt hit the rock and shattered it, making Terra and Gizmo both fall towards the ground. Gizmo still had his wings, though, and Terra called up another rock to stand on. They were still under fire.

Terra maneuvered her rock down to the ground and jumped off, then positioned the rock to shield Gizmo from the starbolts. As the rock was destroyed she brought up more from the ground. Her diversion worked; the starbolts started to head for the rocks instead of Gizmo, and he was able to disappear over the horizon. Satisfied, she called a smaller rock and surfed it back to Slade's cave. Gizmo was already inside. In addition, she also noticed that there were two Cinderblocks. Surprised for a moment, she remembered that one of them was fake. But the other one, then, had succeeded in escaping.

At the other side of the city, about 20 of Slade's robots hastily retreated, the rest having been crushed, eaten, or telekinetically broken. Beast Boy and Raven chased and destroyed the robots as they split up and tried to escape. However, they had failed their most important task, which was to stop Cinderblock. The robots were expendable; they could be easily replaced.

The Titans were not completely without consolation that day. Robin and Cyborg captured Slade, finding to no one's surprise that it was a robot and not the real Slade. However, Cyborg decided to dissect the robot and learn how it worked.

Gizmo, Cinderblock, and Terra were unaware of Slade's (robot's) capture. None of them were surprised when (another of) Slade('s robots) joined them in the cavern. "You may all take the rest of the day off," he said. "You have done well. Tomorrow we have another mission."

Slade called the villains newly at his disposal to the conference room. "Today," he announced, "we will be taking a space trip. We will be going to Tamaran for a recruitment campaign. We will be leaving this afternoon." Slade walked out of the room to prepare the spaceship (which was actually a copy of the T-Sub with rockets attached). The others shuffled back to their rooms to get their belongings.

Four hours later, one of which was taken up by preflight checks, the fake T-sub rocketed off into space.

Three weeks later the T-sub landed in a desert expanse on Tamaran. The cockpits opened, and the four villains emerged. Just over the horizon in the distance was a Gordanian prison compound. One particularly high tower, guarded by several Gordanian guards, was their target.

In the top of the tower, using Gizmo's binoculars, eight uniformed Gordanians with large rifles could be seen milling about. Gizmo aimed carefully with his machine gun and fired a burst.

One Gordanian suddenly fell over, four bullet holes in his chest. The others were immediately attentive. As they rushed over to him worried, the head of a second Gordanian exploded in a burst of green blood. Bits of what was formerly his brain splattered over the remaining six guards. Realizing that they were being sniped, they rushed for the intercom. The first guard to reach the intercom managed to activate it before he fell forward against it, leaving more green blood on the panel. Yet another guard leaned over the dead body and shouted into the speakerphone "This is the east tower we're be—"before his head, too, disappeared in a shower of blood and brains. Only four guards remained; the nearest one completed his sentence: "—being sniped!" and shortly thereafter keeled over with three holes in his chest leaking blood. The other three hurriedly ran down the stairs in the center of the tower. Another tracer carved a furrow through the hair of the last guard as he disappeared under the wall of the tower.

"Look!" Terra pointed at one side of the prison compound. Groups of guards were spreading out in all directions. Two groups were approaching them. Three of the guards in one group were drizzled in blood.

Slade pointed to the left. "Terra and Cinderblock, run over there and make a distraction!" he ordered. There were no rocks around—only sand dunes, so Terra had to run through the sand. Cinderblock, who was much bigger, quickly attracted the attention of the Gordanian search parties. The guards aimed their rifles and fired. Orange laser beams blackened the concrete monster. Many of the rifles soon stopped, however, after Terra's earth powers dumped enormous sand dunes upon the Gordanians. Hands emerged from the piles of sand and struggled to dig out. Amid the confusion Slade and Gizmo rushed up to the tower that had earlier been cleared of guards. Gizmo had many gizmos on him, including a wire to pick locks, which proved to be useful. The door was picked open quickly, and Slade rushed into the tower and up the stairs. Gizmo didn't have to run the stairs, because he simply flew up.

Slade reached a single small cell, with a metal-barred door. Once again Gizmo picked the lock open. Inside, a tall, shackled teenage girl was sitting against the wall. Slade took a welding torch from Gizmo's backpack and cut through the chains.

"Who are you?" she wondered out loud.

"That is not important right now. We need to get you off the planet," replied Slade. He took her hand and pulled her to the only window, using Gizmo's welding torch to cut through the bars. "Fly through!" he ordered, pointing through the now-open window. She crawled out of the window and jumped off, hovering in the air. Slade used his grappling hook to rappel down the wall, while Gizmo stepped through the window and used his wings to avoid falling. Slade motioned in the direction of the T-Sub, just over the horizon, and they sneaked away unnoticed by the Gordanian guards that were buried under sand.

Slade piloted the ship, and after destroying two Gordanian snubfighters with the sonic cannons, set a course for Earth.

Finally, there was time to talk. "So who are you?" asked the teenage girl again.

Slade turned toward her. "My name is Slade. I am recruiting heroes to put down a rebellion on Earth. I need your help. Can you help?"

"Okay..." she said, "but you don't even know who I am. Why would I be able to help?"

"Blackfire, I want your help because your sister is involved in the insurgency."


	3. Mirror Five

Chapter 3: Mirror Five

Back at the Titans Tower, the Teen Titans were becoming impatient. There had been no trouble for nearly six weeks. Everything was eerily under control. Even Robin began to become complacent, having reached the peak of his jitteriness during the fourth week of Slade's absence.

Slade's trip to Tamaran had been a success. He had gained another villain to command, and had also been gone long enough to lull the Titans into complacency. They most likely had not trained hard during this time, and would be unprepared for his next move.

Three nights after returning to Earth, Slade led the four villains at his disposal to the prison compound that confined Overload and Plasmus. The tower which had contained Cinderblock's cell had still not been repaired, due to the lack of government funds for a repair project. They split up, Gizmo sniping the guards in one tower while Terra threw massive amounts of dirt into another tower. Cinderblock advanced through the distraction, preparing to punch out the walls of the prison and free its prisoners.

Suddenly, everyone's attention was drawn to flashes of colored light just behind Cinderblock. Purple energy bolts flew into the darkness and exploded, none hitting their mark. Despite the noise, a shout of "Titans, go!" was heard.

Cinderblock, the least intelligent of the combatants, started to head for the Titans, so Slade immediately shouted "Get the prisoners first!" to get Cinderblock back on task. Cinderblock simply walked up to each tower and pounded down the walls. Plasmus and Overload were thus freed and started for the battle.

Slade, still not in the battle, opened his communicator and shouted in, "Retreat! Retreat!" All the villains except Slade duly disappeared into the forest. The Titans, losing track of the other villains, all set upon Slade, capturing him at once and again revealing him to be a robot.

Cinderblock, Gizmo, Plasmus, Overload, Terra, and Blackfire had returned to Slade's cavern and waited patiently for him. The wait wasn't long; soon, Slade entered the room, despite already having been captured twice and dissected once (by Cyborg). Everyone knew it was a robot, but all the robots were realistic in every respect and might as well have been the real Slade. He led them again to the conference room.

"We have succeeded on our first mission together. In another hour we will be setting out for another, this very night. You should all take advantage of this time to get just a little rest. We will rescue those among us who are still imprisoned, and then our final conquest will begin." Since there was only one hour, everyone simply napped on the table.

After the hour was up, Slade walked around the table, tapping each of his soldiers once on the shoulder. Cinderblock required multiple hard taps and a flying kick to wake up. All of them were now off towards the final prison compound.

At the Titans Tower, the alarm sounded for nearly two minutes straight before waking up the exhausted, deep-asleep Titans. As a result, their normal coordination was not with them that night. Robin was the first to arrive on the scene, but immediately on the defensive against seven opponents. Cyborg was the next to arrive, but they were still heavily outnumbered. Then, inexplicably, the villains who had the advantage in numbers fled. When Raven hovered in, the threat was already gone, the alarm over. The prisoners, Jinx and Mammoth, had been taken from the prison.

* * *

A week went by again with no trouble from Slade. This time, Robin was far more worried than the last time there had been a week of peace. It was not too hard to notice.

On the morning of the eighth day of peace for the Titans, it was again Robin who was the first up. A while later, Cyborg walked in and saw Robin on the couch. "Robin, what's wrong?" he asked. Robin, as usual, responded "Nothing." Cyborg knew there was something and persisted. "I know there's something wrong, I can see it on your face. Please tell me?"

At this moment Beast Boy and Starfire walked in, both overhearing the last part of what Cyborg said. "Robin, what is it?" both asked simultaneously, Beast Boy out of suspicion and Starfire out of curiosity.

"Isn't it a little too peaceful? We haven't had any trouble for a week. I get the feeling that something is very wrong!" complained Robin. "We had six weeks of this kind of peace most recently before we lost two battles! Slade has something really big planned, I know it!"

This was true. The Titans looked at one another and nodded.

And the alarm suddenly went off...


	4. Rules of the Game

OH MY GOD I FORGOT THE DISCLAIMER!!!! I own absolutely nothing in this entire story. All these characters were the creation of someone else.

Author's note: The numbers are actually an allusion to the Cartoon Network game, where the Titans' names are arranged in this order: Robin, Raven, Cyborg, Starfire, Beast Boy. So the fourth mirror would be Blackfire, and the fifth would be Plasmus.

Another author's note: Have you noticed how the Titans fight better when they **don't** gang up on one enemy? Example: All five Titans couldn't capture Cinderblock, while just Robin and Starfire together can defeat Cinderblock, and Cyborg can win all by himself. Four Titans together were defeated by Plasmus in the first episode on Cartoon Network, yet Cyborg and Beast Boy alone are able to fight him successfully. Overload falls as easily to Raven alone as he does to the combination of all five Titans. Robin alone defeats the Master of Games, who has the powers of seven superheroes.

Anyway, this is Chapter 4:

Chapter 4: Rules of the Game

"Trouble!" shouted Robin. "We have four different villains destroying different areas of—"suddenly, Robin stopped, and looked very suspiciously at the other Titans.

"Wait a minute! Slade is only using half his villains here. That must mean..."

"That the others are being held in reserve for something?" finished Cyborg.

"No, these attacks are only a ploy to draw us away from the tower, which will allow the other half of Slade's group to take over our tower. Cyborg, you should stay here to operate the tower defenses. Beast Boy will take Blackfire, Raven you get Overload, Starfire take Plasmus, and I will go for Terra. Are we clear? Let's go!"

Robin gave the orders, and the four Titans spread out for their respective targets. Cyborg sat in the situation room.

Robin rode his R-cycle down the street. He saw Terra at the same time that she saw him. Suddenly the ground opened a wide crack right under him. He jumped off the R-cycle as it fell into the crack, drawing his staff as he did. An unceasing barrage of rocks and pebbles flew towards him. He blocked them all with the staff, advancing through the rocks. He threw a freeze disk, then some explosive disks, all of which Terra blocked using mud or rocks. While she did that, Robin came down from above her in a flying kick. Robin landed his foot squarely on her head, forcing her unconscious to the ground.

Blackfire finished off a group of police cars, ignoring the green hawk circling in the sky. It was a severe mistake, as the hawk hovered over her head for an instant and then transformed into a dinosaur, crushing her underneath as they both fell into the ground. The dinosaur transformed into Beast Boy and got up. A lone police survivor stepped forward and thanked him.

Raven had a very difficult time fighting Overload, because there were no obvious sources of water nearby. Just to her good fortune, however, one of Overload's electric attacks set fire to the roof of a nearby house. A fire truck arrived to put out the blaze and was promptly destroyed by Overload. Raven was close enough to grab the water hose with her bare hands and spray Overload back into a small card. Overload cried out in pain as he shrank away.

Starfire flew down another street and saw Plasmus. Plasmus looked back and raised his hands (as much as they were hands) in the air as if to surrender. Then he raised one of his sludge-formed arms and appeared to point behind her, drawing her attention to Gizmo and Mammoth stood in the middle of the street. Gizmo fired a missile. Although Starfire tried to dodge, she ran into an enormous stone fist and was thrown against the wall of a nearby high-rise building. As she fell down along the side of the building, she recovered just quickly enough to see a wave of pink energy strike the wall right under her feet. The glass window shattered.

Cyborg, having nothing to do, started to play video games on the large screen. After a few minutes, he was very close to beating Beast Boy's top score. However, his communicator sounded:

"Cyborg, please help me! The tower is safe. Please help me!" A sequence of gunfire, explosions, and splashes followed.

Cyborg's attention to the video game was broken and he failed to beat Beast Boy's top score. "What's wrong Starfire? How do you know the tower is safe?" he inquired into the communicator.

"There's no one left to attack the tower. All the villains are here with me!" Starfire's reply came back through the communicator, followed by a burst of gunfire, shattering glass, an explosion, more gunfire and a scream. Cyborg jumped off the couch and ran down the stairs, while simultaneously contacting all the other Titans. "Free Titans need to hurry to Starfire's location immediately," he announced. Beast Boy's voice came back through the communicator: "Why? What is it?" "More villains to tackle," Cyborg replied succinctly.

Beast Boy morphed into a green falcon and flew off. Cyborg jumped into the T-car. They happened to start traveling down the same street. Neither one noticed.

Slade watched from a distant rooftop (using binoculars) as Starfire back-flipped under a missile, cartwheeled aside of a glob of sludge, then somersaulted over a wave of pink energy. He was truly impressed watching her hold off five of his villains, and at the same time puzzled as to how she had become that fast. The battle continued for what seemed to him to be an eternity, but was really only two minutes. He drew out a special heat-seeking explosive disk and threw it from his distance of one mile away. The disk traveled slowly towards the battle as Slade watched with binoculars. It was an easy hit; all the combatants were concentrated on the battle at hand; even the villains were momentarily puzzled as to where the disk had come from. But they recovered faster, and Gizmo managed to get off a last shot with his machine gun before Starfire fell behind a large trash can.

All five villains advanced cautiously forward. "You fought well today. We are all impressed with your skill in battle," complimented Jinx sincerely. "However," broke in Mammoth, "you were not fast enough..."

"Neither are you..." said a voice behind them. They all turned around. Jinx found herself face-to-chest with a green gorilla, and before anyone could react, she was pounded down into the pavement. The concrete pavement cracked and dented under the force of the gorilla's fists. Jinx's body was flat against the dent in the pavement. The gorilla transformed back into Beast Boy. The villains belatedly reacted, Gizmo shooting off a missile, Plasmus throwing a piece of sewage, Mammoth and Cinderblock both charging towards him. Beast Boy simply turned into a snake and ducked the shots. The blue beam of a sonic cannon impacted Gizmo, throwing him down the street. The beam was quickly traced to the T-car. The three remaining villains, Plasmus, Cinderblock, and Mammoth, turned and ran for the T-car.

Beast Boy ran back to the trash can and was met by Starfire. She looked mostly okay, except for the blood dripping from a single bullet hole in her leg. "Star, are you okay?" he asked. "I'm fine," said Starfire. She raised her hand to shoot at the villains that were fighting the T-car. Beast Boy stopped her. "You're injured," he pointed out. "We have to get you back to the tower." "I am okay," she said. "Tamaranians heal much faster than humans." Beast Boy looked again. The blood had stopped flowing already, and the bullet hole was slightly smaller now. He was convinced and decided to take her word for it that she was okay.

Robin arrived just then. He saw that Starfire was wounded. "What happened?" he asked, pointing to the wound. "Starfire was shot," responded Beast Boy. Robin appeared agitated. "What is it?" Starfire asked.

Robin started slowly. "Well, normally Gizmo isn't supposed to use real bullets. That machine gun of his was supposed to shoot flak shells. Here in the world of heroes we have an unspoken understanding with all superhero villains. No one ever, ever uses _lethal_ ammunition. My explosive disks, for example, are actually just painful. It is illegal to actually

A block down the street, Gizmo came to after being hit by the sonic cannon. He silently advanced towards Beast Boy and Starfire. Just as he was about to fire a missile, a nearby truck suddenly rose up and crashed onto him from behind, trapping him under its wreckage. Raven hovered over the truck towards the three villains, who had managed to destroy the T-car and pin Cyborg under the wreckage.

Beast Boy turned into a rhinoceros and charged down the street at Cinderblock. He was stopped by a big glob of sludge. Cyborg had succeeded in blowing away the remains of his T-car with his sonic cannon, and he was wrestling Mammoth. Raven appeared behind Mammoth. "Azarath metreon zinthos!" she shouted, and a black halo surrounded Mammoth. He struggled to avoid being lifted off the ground, to no avail, then found himself unwillingly flying towards the glass wall of the skyscraper that had earlier been damaged by Jinx. He crashed through the glass painfully and landed unconscious on the floor of someone's office.

Cinderblock and Plasmus, now outnumbered, fled the scene, pursued by the five Titans. The chase continued for about two miles before Cinderblock and Plasmus turned a corner. When Robin led his team around the same corner, he suddenly ran right into a wall of dirt. When the dirt subsided, Cinderblock and Plasmus had disappeared. The Titans looked around and saw, in the distance, Terra running away. She disappeared over the horizon.


	5. Big Day

Chapter 5: Big Day

Slade was pleased with himself. Under his leadership, an organization that had once been reduced to two members had bounced back to victory for the first time in years. Slade now had at his disposal eight superheroes and over a thousand battle droids, hidden in a large cavern on the outskirts of the city. Soon, he would be rid of the Titans forever...

Slade again addressed all his troops in the cavern. "We have recovered our fallen; today we are whole again. Soon will be the time of our final victory.

"Before, we were nine villains, but today, we will be different: we will become a single team. That is the key to victory. Today, we will start training together, not as nine powerful individuals but as a team. Together, we are more than the sum of our parts. Only together will we be able to defeat the Teen Titans. Victory is closer than any of us can remember, but it will take all of us together to reach it.

"You may all start now."

All the HIVE spent the next six weeks training harder than any of them had ever before. There was, as a result, no time to pull any heists or other missions in the city. The eerie quietness resumed. Slade took a few days to rebuild and expand his obstacle course to allow multiple combatants at a time. His training equipment was much harder than that of the Teen Titans. The obstacle room at the Hive Academy was similarly rebuilt for the students.

At the Titans Tower, Robin addressed the Titans. "Once again we've had a week of peace. I think instead of being caught off guard in another few days, we can train harder and be prepared for it. This break that Slade's giving us is ample time to fortify the tower, and for training. I don't think we should be defeated again. Titans, go!"

At the end of six weeks, the tower was bristling with weapons (installed by Cyborg) and the newly upgraded obstacle course had found good use. When the next battle came, they would all be much faster and more accurate in shooting. Starfire's leg wound also healed during this time. Everyone had a clean bill of health by the time Slade was ready to attack.

Finally, Slade and his formerly-eight-recruits-but-now-one team of villains met again in the conference room.

"Tomorrow," announced Slade, "we will launch our attack. From then on, we will not rest." Whispers of "Finally!" spread across the room; all the villains had become quite impatient for some real action. Slade continued: "Right now we will go over the battle plan for tomorrow. We will split into two groups. The first group, which I will call the 'bait', will consist of Terra, Plasmus, Gizmo, Blackfire, and myself. The five of us will go out into the city and draw the Titans away from their tower. The second group will consist of Jinx, Mammoth, Overload, and Cinderblock. The four of you have the more important task, which is to take over the Titans Tower. When you have succeeded, contact me immediately.

"Our primary objective tomorrow is to capture the Titans Tower. However, if any of us get an opportunity to kill any of the Titans, do not hesitate. It is preferable to strike a Titan that is already down rather than come to the aid of a beleaguered teammate. The goal is not to knock out the Titans, but rather to kill them.

"Once the tower is under our control, those of us that were bait for the Titans will also go to the tower and rendezvous with the people already at the tower. There, we will fight the Titans, and we will kill all five of them. The city will be ours then.

"One more thing. For those of us that will be baiting out the Titans, we should all concentrate on Raven first. Some of you should have noticed that she has to say the three magic words 'Azarath metreon zinthos' at the beginning of every battle. If we can stop her from saying that, she won't be able to fight, and we will only have four Titans left to fight."

Everyone started to get up to leave the room. "Terra, wait," called Slade. "Take this." He tossed her a blue cloak identical to Raven's. "We will be the first on the scene tomorrow. I want you to wear this cloak so that the police think you are Raven. They will be confused whose side to take, and they'll stay out of our battle." Terra nodded and took the cloak.

* * *

It was not a normal day at the Titans Tower; they had not had a normal day for a long time now. Robin was up early on the obstacle course. The other Titans were still asleep.

The alarm shrieked, waking up the Titans that were still asleep. Robin rushed into the tower to check the location of the alarm. The Titans soon arrived at a bank in the downtown city. It was being attacked by a hooded figure in a blue cloak and another figure wearing a mask, green gloves and a red shirt with an "R" painted on the chest. He had his staff out and was beating up the bank guards. The blue-cloaked figure was telekinetically throwing large rocks at the bank. The Titans were stunned; the villains were impostors of Robin and Raven! Robin got their attention by throwing a batarang at the man that was impersonating him. He turned around, removing his mask and costume. The impostor Raven faced them and removed her blue cloak throwing it on the ground.

Now they were easily recognized as Slade and Terra. The manhole cover in the road popped out and Plasmus flowed up onto the street. Gizmo in spider form walked out of the bank's garage. From behind the bank, Blackfire hovered down to the street.

Robin pointed—and so did Slade—and Robin started to shout "Titans, go!" only to hear someone else saying it with him. He realized it was Slade and he was angry. Robin drew some explosive disks and so did Slade. Robin threw them, while Slade simultaneously threw his. The four disks came together and collided. Concealed in the smoke, Robin drew his staff and leapt forward—but his staff clanged against Slade's. Robin stepped right, and so did Slade. Robin brought his staff around to the left only to again have it clang off Slade's. They dueled with their retractable staffs for half an hour. No matter what Robin did, Slade mirrored.

The other villains all sprung into action. Raven started to chant "Azarath metreon zinthos" but before she could finish the word "Azarath" a glob of sludge was flying her way. She hurriedly finished the word and levitated up out of the way. Before she could say "Metreon" a spread of missiles was immediately aimed at her. She managed to fly to the right while pronouncing "Metreon" at the same time. The enemy team, except Slade (who was staff-dueling with Robin) all fired at Raven as fast as they could, trying their utmost to keep her from activating her powers. She dodged more attacks for about a minute all while struggling to finish saying the magic chant. Three Titans were still not in the battle, but watched, amused, for several seconds as Raven tried to say her magic words without being hit. Suddenly they realized that they were standing there doing nothing when they should be helping Raven.

"What are we waiting for? Attack!" called Cyborg. The villains were so amused watching Raven attempt to complete her chant that they were all caught off guard when a sonic cannon blast impacted Plasmus, blowing a hole through him as he was about to throw another glob of sludge. A green rhinoceros charged forward, throwing Terra across the street and causing the rocks she was controlling to fall to the ground. Gizmo was thrown the opposite direction by a series of starbolts. The confused villains stopped attacking as they tried to recover, and Raven managed to finish her chant with "zinthos!" A spherical black bubble formed around her. Plasmus recovered and tried a last sludge attack. The sludge splashed off Raven's shield. Plasmus slammed his "hand" on the ground in disappointment.

Slade's team had failed to silence Raven. All combatants found targets and the battle was on.

This battle was a historic milestone for the Teen Titans. Never since their inception had they fought a battle in which they did not outnumber the enemy. But in this battle, for the first time ever, they were fighting an even battle against an enemy team with equal firepower.


	6. We are Honored

Chapter 6: We are Honored

So it had come to pass that the five Titans faced five villains on equal terms. For once, Robin's group did not outnumber Slade's. Of course Slade had robots, but those were not really people, and they weren't at this battle.

Robin and Slade continued to trade blows with their retractable staffs. Raven's powers had finally been activated, so she started to pick up a nearby rock to throw at Gizmo. Coincidentally, Terra also tried to throw the very same rock at Cyborg, who was in a shootout with Gizmo. Terra and Raven simultaneously picked up the rock and telekinetically hurled it in two directions. Under equal and opposite forces, the rock did not move. A black halo punctuated by yellow flashes surrounded the rock as it floated idly in the air. Terra and Raven noticed each other, then both pushed harder. The rock started to crack open, then shattered. Terra pointed at the ground and a column of dirt shot up under Raven, catching her off-guard. Terra took a few seconds to open her communicator and quietly announce: "We've sighted all the Titans. The tower is deserted, repeat the tower is deserted. Attack now." Mammoth's voice came back through the communicator. "We are in position, commencing attack now." Cinderblock's grunting was heard in the distance as the heavily fortified Titans Tower started to shoot at him.

The "-fire" sisters circled each other in the sky, each dodging the other's starbolts (or "black"bolts). They circled around and around, firing constantly and neither hitting the other. At the exact same time they both gave up on starbolts and decided to use their eye-lasers instead. A moment later four different beams shot from their eyes, two green ones hitting Blackfire and two purple ones hitting Starfire. Both sisters were knocked to the ground.

Beast Boy appeared behind Gizmo as a charging green rhinoceros. Gizmo was concentrating on Cyborg and was thrown into the wall of a house on the other side of the street. Cyborg was concentrating on Gizmo and not prepared when a sludge crab scuttled along the ground and swallowed him.

Meanwhile, Overload sent electric bolts flying towards an explosive-disc launcher on the Titans Tower's roof, while Jinx jinxed a water gun concealed behind a glass panel. Cinderblock stood in front of Overload, protecting him from any water cannons, while Overload peeked out to hit any sonic cannons or disc launchers that could hurt Cinderblock. The remaining weapons continued to fire, while Jinx dodged every shot and disabled the turrets with pink energy waves.

Cyborg struggled to free himself from the sludge crab. Suddenly all the Titans' communicators beeped. The tower was being attacked! "We have to get back to the tower!" yelled Robin over the din of the battle. At some point, all the Titans were back together in a semicircle formation. "Raven, get us back to the tower," ordered Robin. A black bird shape enveloped the Titans and flew off towards the tower. All the five villains fired at once. A glob of sludge passed right under the black raven. A pair of purple starbolts passed through it to no effect. Missiles failed to lock on to their target. Slade's explosive disc and Terra's piece of asphalt both passed through the black raven. Nothing happened. The raven simply kept flying towards the tower, unfazed.

After some fighting, Jinx, Mammoth, Overload, and Cinderblock had disabled the weapons on the outside of the Titans Tower. They walked up to the door and found it locked. No matter; Mammoth banged down the door with a few punches.

Suddenly, from behind them came a spread of four arrows. These arrows launched a net, trapping Cinderblock and Overload under it. Everyone turned to see Speedy, aiming another arrow at them. Jinx and Mammoth leaped in different directions and avoided the arrow. Cinderblock, after some struggling, punched through the net. Speedy fired another arrow at Mammoth, who dodged again. This time, it was a heat-seeking arrow, which turned around and sought out Overload. The arrow, unfortunately, had no effect on Overload.

Jinx launched a pink wave, which Speedy jumped over. Overload, Cinderblock, and Mammoth charged at him...

...when Cinderblock was suddenly thrown to the ground, landing right on Mammoth and Overload. Everyone got a look at the new arrival—it was Wilderbeest!

Jinx launched another energy wave at Wilderbeest, but it only glanced off his armored chestplate. Cinderblock started to get up and saw Wilderbeest charging. Cinderblock wound up for a big punch but got hit by two explosive arrows. He was knocked flat on his back this time. Mammoth got up and delivered the punch in Cinderblock's place. Wilderbeest was thrown on his back but Mammoth was immediately shaking his hand in pain, all his fingers broken. Wilderbeest got up slowly, his chestplate undamaged.

At that moment, a black raven appeared, and the Titans stepped out. Overload was the first to notice and aimed an electric attack—

--when suddenly a huge geyser of water shot up from the nearby ocean, landing directly on Overload. He cried out in pain as the water shrank him. Cinderblock hurried to shield Overload from the stream of water. Meanwhile, Jinx noticed the figure of Aqualad standing knee-deep in the water. She sent him a wave of pink energy, and as he was hit by the energy the water stopped coming.

Robin recognized Speedy and Wilderbeest from their battle with the Master of Games. Speedy loaded his bow with three heat-seeking arrows and pointed them at Mammoth, still holding his right hand in pain.

"Speedy! What a pleasant surprise!" called Robin. "How did you know to come here and help us?" Speedy replied, "You made me an honorary Titan, remember? The tournament?" "Well, thanks for the help," said Robin. The four villains were now outnumbered. The eight heroes stood in a semicircle, advancing on the villains backed against the wall of the Tower.

Suddenly Jinx remembered that the door was open. "Get inside!" she shouted, and all the villains realized the same and quickly ran into the tower. The Titans, including the honorary ones, hurried in and chased them.

The villains split up, each trying to find somewhere to hide. Cinderblock was too big to hide and ended up being punched through the window back out of the tower. Overload slipped into the nearest room—Cyborg's room—while Jinx and Mammoth ran into the next room, which was Raven's. The pursuing Titans got to the main room just in time to see Mammoth heading into Raven's room.

Jinx used her magic to partially melt the edges of the door, sealing it shut. Now they had to wait until the Titans left. Mammoth used his strength to bolster the door against the Titans' pounding, while Jinx decided to take a look around Raven's room. On the desk was the black portal mirror. Jinx looked at it and was suddenly grabbed by the mirror and sucked in. Mammoth rushed over to help and was also sucked in.

The Titans pounded on the sealed doors into Cyborg's and Raven's rooms and the doors began to give way. Suddenly, the glass panel window shattered. Slade rappelled into the tower, while Terra floated in on a rock. From downstairs, through the neglected front door, Plasmus flowed up to the living quarters. A window at the other end of the hall shattered, and Gizmo jumped into the hallway, followed by Blackfire. The Titans were now sandwiched into the hall.

"Titans, go!" ordered Robin, and all of the Titans dived for the floor, neatly ducking Gizmo's machine-gun fire. This caught the villains by surprise. Gizmo's machine-gun fire lodged in Slade's stomach. Blue-white sparks and glowing wires popped from the bullet holes. Once again, Slade was a robot.

As the fight continued, the four villains slowly backed out of the tower, cleverly luring the Titans away from the tower. The Titans fought confidently, since they outnumbered the villains...

...but not for long, as the Titans (real and honorary) stepped out of the tower to find four different Slade look-alike robots waiting. The other four villains joined with the copies of their boss and prepared to fight.


	7. Victory

Chapter 7: Victory

There were now nine Titans and nine villains on the scene, which included four Slade-bots.

"Titans, go!"

Robin, Speedy, Starfire, and Wildebeest ended up each taking on one of the Slade-bots, while the other Titans fought the team of Gizmo, Cinderblock, Overload, Plasmus, and Blackfire. Robin punched at one Slade, which ducked to avoid the punch, crouched, and kicked out at Robin's feet. Robin jumped over the kick, but Slade unexpectedly kept spinning. His foot came around a second time and tripped Robin. He fell to the floor and rolled out of the wayof another kick and jumped back up. Meanwhile, Speedy fired volley after volley of exploding arrows at his Slade, but that Slade blocked all the arrows with a bowstaff. The third Slade did the same with Starfire's lasers and starbolts. Wildebeest was the first to go down; he charged the last Slade, who simply somersaulted over him and then threw an electric disk on Wildebeest's unarmored back, knocking him unconscious.

At that moment Robin's Slade suddenly jumped away and ran towards the fallen Wildebeest, whipping out his bowstaff as he did so. Sharp S-shaped blades extended from the ends of the bowstaff. Robin threw a freeze disk to stop Slade, but the other one (who had just beaten Wildebeest) blocked the disk, allowing his fellow Sladebot to stab his bowstaff into Wildebeest's neck, sending the superhero on to his reward.

More bad news came for the Titans as yet another Slade arrived, unnoticed. What the Titans never knew was that this was the real Slade, far more skilled than the robot decoys. He quietly stayed some distance away, watching the Titans and villains struggle. He was here for one purpose: to ensure the final defeat of the Titans.

His first opportunity came when he sawOverload hit Beast Boy (in pterodactyl form) with an electric arm just as Aqualad brought another spout of water to bear upon him. Both Overload and Beast Boy were out cold. Hidden in the branches of a nearby tree Slade took out one of his S-a-rangs with sharp points and hurled it at Beast Boy from a distance. The point of the S-a-rang pierced Beast Boy's skull in a spurt of red blood. Slade would not have to worry about the shapeshifter again.

Cyborg was the next to fall as he failed to dodge an eye-laser from Blackfire, although she had also failed to dodge his sonic cannon and was also knocked down. Slade dashed to Cyborg's body and with another S-a-rang stabbed into the biological part of Cyborg's face. This time Aqualad noticed Slade and quickly directed a spout of water. Slade evaded the water stream and the distraction gave Plasmus a chance to slime Aqualad with a big glob of purple sludge. Aqualad fell, trapped in the sticky sludge, and momentarily let go of the water. He quickly summoned it up again as he realized that he could wash away the sludge, but before the water arrived, Slade did and stabbed down at Aqualad with a sharp-bladed bowstaff. A black shield appeared to save Aqualad as Raven realized what was happening, but Cinderblock, no longer suffering from Raven's attacks, charged over and stomped down with his foot on Aqualad. The water, uncontrolled, fell down onto the ground and turned red. When it had flowed away and Cinderblock removed his foot, there was only a red-and-purple sticky patch where Aqualad had once been. He had been crushed to a pancake.

Raven shielded herself against an S-a-rang from Slade and a tree thrown by Cinderblock, but the Slade that had been fighting Speedy saw its chance and hurled an S-a-rang behind her. Starfire intercepted the S-a-rang with her eye-lasers, but the two Slades that she had been fighting now had their opening. One kicked her in the stomach while the other somersaulted over her and when she turned to face that one, the Slade that kicked her bounded towards Raven and skewered her on a bowstaff.

With the multiple Slades, each Titan was thus finished in a similar manner and the HIVE came to control Jump City. This control, however, would prove to be short-lived as the murder of the Teen Titans made headlines on newspapers across the nation the next day. The Justice League took over the handling of Jump City and soon captured most of the villains, restoring order to the city...

But one escaped their grasp. Slade Wilson abandoned Jump City and was subsequently sighted all across the nation over the next few years. Legally, he was the real murderer of the Teen Titans, as he or his robots had been the ones to strike the finishing blows to each of the nine young heroes and he had been the only premeditator. His HIVE subordinates had been convicted of accesory to murder and, for the most part, served their sentences.

Wantedfor nine counts of first-degree murder, Slade Wilson has still not been brought to justice. Hemay be alive, hiding in some distant corner of the galaxy; he may be hiding somewhere in the vast expanses of America or another country; he may already be dead. Those whoknew much about him, though, agree that he will never be in custody.


End file.
